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death from laughter

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Also known as why so serious?

cause of death

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Chrysippus allegedly died of laughter after witnessing a donkey eating his figs. Der Tod des Dichters Pietro Aretino (The Death of the Poet Pietro Aretino) by Anselm Feuerbach

Death from laughter is a rare form of death, usually resulting from either cardiac arrest or asphyxiation, that has itself been caused by a fit of laughter. Though uncommon, death by laughter has been recorded from the times of ancient Greece to modern times.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “death from laughter” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.